At the Inspīr on Embassy Row in Northwest D.C., residents of the hotel-turned-senior living apartments get their meals delivered by Ralph, who wears a tuxedo — sort of.
You see, Ralph is a robot, and the tuxedo is a design on a screen where the torso would be on a human. Four shelves on its back hold food and drinks from the kitchen, which it carries to dining rooms separated by a long hallway.
“I think it’s cute,” said Joel Hirsch, one of the many residents who have taken to the robot, according Inspīr staff.
“It’s actually very helpful, however, because it saves the serving staff a lot of having to go back and forth themselves. So they’re able to take care of the people in the dining room without having to go back and forth to the kitchen,” he said.
Residents named the robot Ralph, but the idea of having the robot server came from chef Richard McCreadie.
“I actually had gone to a Chinese restaurant and they had a fleet of robots and they were doing exactly the same,” he said. “They were picking it up from the expediting station, taking it to the table and let the waiter know that they were there, and the waiters would come and serve it to the table. And I thought it was a great idea.”
That’s how it works at Inspīr too.
“It saves me a lot of running because usually if there’s nobody to spare, I have to run back and forth,” McCreadie said.
Ralph’s “face” is a touch screen with different table numbers. When a cup of coffee or bowl of yogurt is ready to go out, McCreadie or someone else on staff labels the dish and tap the table or room it’s being delivered to.
The robot begins to play classical music as it rolls down the hallway — with the occasional “here comes the robot, pretty and smart” coming from the speaker too.
Ralph moves at a little less than half its top speed, but the audio warnings are a necessity.
“We have residents who may have low vision, and if they hear something coming, they know to move rather than just see the robot,” Inspīr General Manager Amanda Glendinning said.
When the robot reaches its programmed destination, it announces itself by saying, “Your delicious meal is here. Please take the dishes on the first tray.”
Once it senses that something has been picked up off its shelf, it begins to go back to the kitchen area, saying “Enjoy your meal. I’m leaving to complete a new task.”
Inspīr began using the robot last fall. Early into the two-month trial period, the staff realized this was something that would work.
“The residents just get such a kick out of him,” Glendinning said. “They were the ones who really pushed for us to keep Ralph — chef did, but also the residents. So that’s where I really saw ‘OK, let’s keep him. Let’s make it work.’”
Hirsch said the first time he saw it, he thought it was just like R2-D2. Even a year ago he never would have imagined seeing such a thing.
“Everybody loves the robot,” Hirsch said. “It’s cute, but it actually does fulfill a useful function.”
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